I must preface this by saying that I've been cruising blithely and happily along with Escape Pod for... probably about half a year or more. Many stories I have loved, some I was indifferent on. None of them prompted me with any thoughts worth posting to the forums.
This one did prompt a thought, and I find myself bursting until I share it here.
Put simply: "Yuck."
I get that it's satire. I don't even really have a problem with all the cursing. I get what it's going for, at least I think so.
I suppose that I'm just not punk or hardcore enough like the characters to enjoy their story.
Me, I have some different one-word descriptors of the characters.
"Jerks" if I'm feeling generous. "Assholes" if I feel like being accurate.
Truly, who is the reader supposed to identify with if they're not a "screw everyone and everything" personality?
And even those who ended up selling out were, truly, about two inches deep as people.
I would have no desire to spend two minutes with these people in real life. I can't believe I spent 20 minutes with them in this story.
Sorry, guys, this one was a miss in my book.
(Sigh, once again Mat Weller and I have different opinions. Ah, well, someday we'll agree.
)
On the plus side, I enjoyed Alasdair's essay - I might just have to check out his book.
-Adam